After falling short to the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals in seven games, the first order of business for the Boston Celtics was whether the team wanted to bring back rookie head coach Joe Mazzulla.
With so many playoff teams parting ways with big-name head coaches during the postseason, it wouldn’t be shocking to see the Celtics part ways with Mazzulla in an effort to bring in a veteran head coach that might be better suited to lead this team moving forward.
However, shortly after the Celtics were eliminated, Mazzulla was given a vote of confidence from Brad Stevens, which means he’s not going anywhere.
Even though Stevens promised Mazzulla would be back on the sideline for Boston next season, the team has made some moves to improve the coaching staff and potentially have assistants in place that can take over for Mazzulla if he fails to live up to expectations.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the Celtics have hired Charles Lee, formerly of the Milwaukee Bucks, to be Mazzulla’s lead assistant.
Charles Lee is finalizing a deal to join the Boston Celtics as the lead assistant coach, sources tell ESPN. Lee had been the associate head coach with Milwaukee and a finalist for the Toronto and Detroit head jobs. pic.twitter.com/t2WO5r2hHh
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 11, 2023
Along with Lee, the Celtics recently brought in Sam Cassell to join the coaching staff, which adds another potential future head coach to Mazzulla’s group.
With the team now having addressed the coaching staff, the attention will likely turn to the immediate future of forward Jaylen Brown, who made an All-NBA team and is eligible for a supermax contract extension.
If the team is invested in Brown moving forward, then the team could be relatively the same next season, but if not, Boston may look to shake things up with the star forward potentially getting traded.
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